> That aside, I think the single bigest barrier to creating purely virtual
> states is ensuring their independence. Right now, such a community would
> be
> very vulnerable to attack by nation-states (especially the state its
> servers
> are located in). Since just about every country with decent Internet
> connectivity also participates in a web of international mutual
> extradition
> treaties, it would be very difficult to set up an independent legal
> regime.
> On line theft, fraud, and other serious (i.e. widely recognized) crimes
> will
> end up being punished by some physical country, which means that the
> virtual
> states can never actually have sovereignty.
>
What if you have an entry rule like this: Every party who wants to set up an
e-nation needs to set up a new server, possibly in a new (real) country.
Further, if the Grand System Admin asks it, you must take other e-nations'
data onto your server. They will be required to remedy the situ
ation eventually, but this means that anyone whos setup is in a country which turns hostile, can get moved to a server in another country ASAP. If you get enough startups, the whole thing might be relatively robust.
In fact, mightn't you be able to find real countries which would allow you to operate relatively independently? How about servers on boats in the deep sea. Or on a satelite? Or on the moon?
As for citizens' physical bodies, well, I've got no answers, except for the tried and true "head for the hills" approach. Or become a systems admin on the moon perhaps.
Emlyn
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